Destination India For Morgan Stanley & Its Search For Billionaires

Last year the world of business took notice. It said India was definitely Asia’s billionaire capital. Come 2009 and the global financial recession, and the top status was to be changed as seen in the Forbes’ billionaires list 2009. That said, the India billionaire club is far from affected. And why not, the previous figure of just 9 in 2004 has changed to 24 this year.

This boost has given a cool business idea to private wealth management module Morgan Stanley. The brand is all set to make a clientele out of these Richie Richs of India in a private investment club. The qualifying factor will be a minimum investible surplus of $1 billion.

The Indian rep of Morgan Stanley, Himanshu Bhagat claims that since India is the second fastest growing economy in the world, the number of billionaries here is going to rise. So, the club will allow them to enjoy customised and separately-managed accounts from Morgan Stanley as well as a multi-asset portfolio that shall comprise equity, debt, structured notes, private equity and so on. This service will be launched on September 16 amidst a lot of pomp and show. At the start, it will accept a dozen members only. This shall make India the fifth country after the USA, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore to have this exclusive club.